One of the largest Iron Age hoards ever found in the UK was recently unveiled. Comprising hundreds of metal items, its contents are shedding brilliant light on this period of Yorkshire’s past, revealing how wealthy and well-connected some of its ancient inhabitants were. Carly Hilts spoke to Tom Moore, Emily Williams, Sophia Adams, and Keith Emerick.
The face and head of an Iron Age woman whose remains were discovered in Dorset’s Kimmeridge Bay 25 years ago have been reconstructed by an MSc Bioarchaeology student at Bournemouth University. The woman’s skeleton was discovered in 2000, when cliff…
The discovery of a rare enamelled brooch at an Iron Age settlement site in Curragh, South Ayrshire, has revealed interesting insights into how the Britons of south-west Scotland and the Roman army interacted in the late 2nd century AD. The…
Human remains that were discovered in peatland at Ballymacombs More in Northern Ireland have been reidentified as belonging to an Iron Age woman who was possibly the victim of a sacrificial rite. When a bog body was discovered by machine…
A line of pits unearthed during excavations in Dijon contained rare examples of Iron Age individuals buried in a seated position. Hervé Laganier reveals what has been found, and how it compares to other examples of this enigmatic phenomenon.
Tacitus, in his book on the life and character of his father-in-law Julius Agricola, the Roman Governor of Britain from c.AD 77 to 84, makes the often-quoted observation that ‘Britons make no distinction of sex in their leaders’. In his Annals (XIV.35), the same author depicts Boudica (AD 30-61) rallying her supporters with the cry: ‘we British are used to women commanders in war’.
Iron Age artefacts that were discovered beneath an airfield in Wales have been declared national treasure. Parts of a Celtic chariot, believed to be around 2,000 years old, were found on the site of RAF Valley in Anglesey in April…
Analysis of human remains from Winterborne Kingston in Dorset (see CA 281) has revealed evidence of female-centred societal structures in this area of Iron Age Britain, as well as genetic links to Continental Europe. Matrilocality, a societal pattern whereby marriage…
A recent metal-detector survey undertaken ahead of maintenance work at the RAF Valley airfield in Anglesey has recovered artefacts thought to belong to one of the most significant Iron Age collections in Europe. Carly Hilts spoke to Adam Gwilt and Richard Osgood to learn more.
Mentioning money I wanted to comment on the excellent article ‘Fields of Gold’ in CA 419.Snettisham is not only notable for buried torcs but it is also a ‘hot spot’ for coins – less spectacular, maybe, than torcs, but equally…
REVIEW BY TIM PESTELL Only a handful of British archaeological sites can be truly described as iconic, but Snettisham in Norfolk has a strong claim, having become synonymous with the presence and hoarding there of Iron Age torcs. The questions…
Over the course of eight decades, at least 14 separate hoards of Iron Age metalwork have been recovered from a single field at Snettisham in Norfolk. Now, following the publication of a new book describing the excavation, conservation, and scientific investigation of these spectacular finds, Jody Joy and Julia Farley describe how they came to be discovered, and reveal some of the secrets that have come to light since then.
Excavations at an Iron Age fort in County Dublin have uncovered evidence of the exotic tastes of its inhabitants, including the earliest archaeological remains of a fig discovered in Ireland. Drumanagh promontory fort consists of c.46 acres of land enclosed…
A new exhibition at the Drents Museum tells the story of the Dacians through their spectacular treasures. Gillis Kersting visited to find out more.
A remarkably well-preserved 6th-century burial chamber has been discovered near Riedlingen, in south-west Germany. The burial chamber lies beneath a huge burial mound, which measures 65m in diameter and currently survives to a height of 2m, although it probably once…
In 2019, a metal-detectorist made a startling discovery while exploring near the edge of a stream near Pulborough in West Sussex: two curved pieces of a golden torc dating to the Iron Age. After being reported to the local Finds…
Recent excavations at Bodicote, just south of Banbury, have revealed the remains of an Iron Age farmstead where ten storage pits had been repurposed as graves. This was not an uncommon practice for the period – but other aspects of the inhumations were rather more unusual, as Rebecca Trow, Milena Grzybowska, Roger Doonan, and Robin Holgate report.
On a cold March day in 1995, fortune blessed me. I had written to the ancient historian N G L Hammond to see if he might meet me. He was 87, so it was a long shot. Not only did…
Archaeological work in Kenya has uncovered the earliest evidence for plant farming in equatorial east Africa. As a crossroads for various population movements throughout history, many of which included the transmission of crops, the region encompassing Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda…
REVIEW BY CHRISTOPHER CATLING Rather than inventing a landscape, Anne Buffoni has set this gripping adventure story within places that can be visited in the Cotswolds. Usefully, she includes itineraries at the end of the book to encourage readers to…
A rare Iron Age belt-hook and comb are among the artefacts recovered by University of Bradford archaeologists and students during this summer’s excavations at the Knowe of Swandro on Rousay, Orkney. The team have been investigating the site since 2017…
A long-running community excavation in rural west Cornwall has been exploring an enigmatic network of Iron Age tunnels, as well as Bronze Age and Romano-British features, for more than 15 years. Carly Hilts spoke to James Gossip on site this summer.
Pendinas hillfort is a well-situated pre-Roman defended village, commanding a prominent hill on the west coast of Cardigan Bay. The Iron Age hillfort developed over several centuries, eventually encompassing both the steeper south summit and the lower north summit. Everything…
Mass horse burial in central France The remains of 37 horses have been recovered from 14 pits in Villedieu-sur-Indre. The horses date back 2,000 years, and have all been identified as fully grown stallions. Archaeologists have made various suggestions as…
Archaeologists working in Villedieu-sur-Indre in central France have uncovered a remarkable set of pits filled with the remains of c.2000-year-old horses. The excavations were carried out over an area of 1.3ha by a team from Inrap in advance of a…
The skeleton of an Iron Age woman found in Winterborne Kingston, Dorset, has revealed rare material evidence of possible human sacrifice from this period. The site has been extensively excavated by Bournemouth University teams for more than 15 years, owing…
This glass bead was a surface find by a metal-detectorist in Wanston. It is an example of an ‘eye’ bead, possibly dating to the Early Iron Age (c.800-c.350 BC), and was found on an area of farmland known to have…
Wemyss Casts returned Two plaster casts of a boat carving in Jonathan’s Cave, east Wemyss, have been returned to Scotland after 90 years. Dated to 1st millennium BC, the original carving is possibly the earliest depiction of a boat in…
REVIEW BY GRAEME CAVERS This volume comprises an assessment of the evidence for Iron Age object deposition from two study areas, modern Wales and Scotland, with the objective of identifying patterns in the available data. Primarily a desk-based exercise based…
Ritual practices in prehistoric Poland A considerable number of large Bronze Age and early Iron Age artefacts have been unearthed by archaeologists in a dried-up lakebed at the site of Papowo Biskupie in north-central Poland. It is believed that members…
It might have been used as an antiseptic or… a hunger suppressant – or just because people liked the taste.
A collaborative exhibition explores the Iron Age people of the Iberian Peninsula. Amy Brunskill spoke to curator Laurent Gorgerat to find out more.
This copper-alloy fibula brooch was found by a metal detectorist in 2019, near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, and recently appeared as a star find in the Portable Antiquities Scheme Annual Report (see here). The brooch features a human face design or…
REVIEW BY CHRIS JONES This important book is the product of 11 seasons of careful fieldwork by members of the Northumberland Archaeological Group. The book is structured around the five main areas of the project, beginning with the geoarchaeological survey…
• Warham Camp: exploring an Iron Age enigma in Norfolk
• Tracing Sarmatian cavalry in Britain
• Resurrecting Imber’s ‘ghost village’
• Religion and royalty at medieval Ferns
• Making sense of the Knaresborough Hoard
• An ancient jigsaw puzzle: reconstructing a Roman arm guard
Last summer, excavations at Warham Camp – a monumental Iron Age enclosure in north Norfolk – revealed intriguing clues to the site’s date and purpose. Carly Hilts visited the project and spoke to Andy Hutcheson to find out more.